Mind Alive Blog
Friday, February 10, 2012
Testimonial About AVE Helping ADD
Here's another testimonial from a mother with ADD child. We love hearing how our products help people live happier healthier lives. If you have a story you'd like to share please let us know!
"Hi,
I had written to you a while back about my daughter, Olivia, who is in 6th grade and has ADD. She has had a David Pal for several years but our problem had always been consistency with using it. It became especially hard this year when she started middle school and had to get up earlier to go to school. Olivia is twice exceptional so she is gifted but struggles with some things.
She had been failing math for the past two 9 week terms in school. I was really concerned and was all set to switch her to the special ed math class. I was even considering putting her on medication, something I have always tried to avoid, but decided I just needed to increase her use of the light and sound machine before resorting to medication. You suggested that I put her light and sound machine on her a half an hour before she wakes up in the morning. I have been doing this for over a month now.
I just got back from Olivia's IEP meeting to switch her into the special ed math class when I was told that Olivia now has a "B" in her regular ed math class and her teacher felt like something has "clicked" with her recently and she is now "getting it." I was stunned! I am so happy and so proud of her! Her gifted language arts teacher also said that she has "good organizational skills" in class and that she is able to find her assignments in her binder and keep it organized. This also shocked me because Olivia, like most people with ADD/ADHD, really struggles with planning and organization. I asked her language arts teacher if this has been the case all year, or if she has seen an improvement recently. She said that she has seen more of an improvement with this recently, which I also attribute to the increased use of her David PAL.
I am so extremely grateful to have something that helps my daughter with her ADD and do not have to worry about the side effects of medication. Olivia is tiny and has the appetite of a bird to begin with and the last thing I want to do is put her on a stimulant medication. My gut has always told me that medication for my daughter's ADD was not the way to go.
I did a lot of research before I had Olivia start AVE because she's my kid and I'm not about to take any chances with her. All of the research shows that it works and my daughter is living proof. So again, I cannot thank you enough for this amazing product and just wanted you to know that it has made all the difference in the world to my daughter and our family.
Please feel free to use this as a testimonial.
Sharon"
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Testimonial About AVE Helping a Sleep Disorder
This testimonial comes to us froma client of "A Chance to Grow" School. She had a lot to say about our technology, so we edited this version for length.
If you have stories you'd like to share about how DAVID products helped you, your loved one or your practice we'd love to hear from you.
"We have a David Pal unit, rented but we will now purchase through A Chance to Grow in Minnesota. We have had it for about 2.5 weeks.
Our daughter came home with severe sleep issues at 11.5 months old. For 5.5 years she has co-slept with me or me and my newlywed husband. It took hours for her to fall asleep every night with one of us in the room (even on the honeymoon) and she woke up if we got up after she fell asleep. We have done therapy, Neuro Reorganization, Rhythmic Movement Therapy, Gluten/Casein Free diet, Nutritional Supplements, DAN! Testing, BIT/Crossinology and probably some stuff I’m forgetting. She also gets triggered into violent destructive rages when she becomes overwhelmed emotionally. Some of these helped, some didn’t, some we are not sure, but did no harm. I have sometimes worried about whether she would ever gain control of her emotional regulation and I know it is still not a done deal.
I had heard about AVE, but was reluctant to spend $350 on something I wasn’t sure she would even leave on her head. I was busy paying for other therapies! A Chance to Grow allows you to rent the units for up to 2 months at $50/month. We decide we were willing to risk $50 to see if this would help. She wasn’t thrilled the first 2 nights. (I bought a second set of glasses and headphones with a splitter cord so she could lie right next to me and we could do the same program together.)
After that she started to fall asleep during the 40 minute program. Less than three weeks later, she falls asleep within 20 minutes. We do a series of relaxation exercise with her before bed. If she falls asleep during these, she now rouses enough to remind us that she still needs to do her “lights.” We let the program finish even if she falls asleep during it since the audio and visual pathways remain open even during sleep. We even put the unit on if she falls asleep without it since we feel she goes into a deeper, more relaxed state of sleep.
I would never have believed we would get these kinds of results in this little time and with this little opposition. Did I say WOW? WOW!!!! This does not solve all her issues, but it is sure a great start.
This morning I caught as she started to trigger into an emotionally disregulated rage, I told her that Miss Becky said that the lights would help calm her down. Within 5 minutes, her breathing was calm and she was completely cooperative and non-oppositional when the program ended. She had fallen asleep, so we will experiment with using a slightly different program for calming and are thinking about incorporating it into her daily routine during the times she has most difficulty with emotional regulation. We are going to put an MP3 player that allows easy selection of input and load it with appropriate music and audio books so that she can have some variety. If I can pry it off her head, I am going to try it with my, now chronic, insomnia.
We have three other more recently adopted children and want to see if it is effective for relaxation in our hyper-vigilant son with a history of violent abuse, inability to focus academically when on the way to emotional distress/disassociation with his younger brother and other post-institutional issues with their younger sister. Who knows how many of these I may end up buying? I am only sorry I put it off as long as I did, but we do try to test only one new intervention at a time."
by Sima Chowdhury - February 10, 2012